Bolivar’s Letter from Jamaica
Because most of Europe was under Napoleon’s control, the leaders of the Latin American
independence movement sought help from Great Britain, whose government was a model they
admired. After a defeat in Venezuela in 1814, Simon Bolivar fled to the British-controlled island
of Jamaica. While there, he wrote a letter that would become famous as a statement of his and
principles.
The ties that bound Latin America to Spain has been severed (
)…The hatred
that Spain has inspired (
) in us is greater than the ocean which separates us.
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The habit of obedience (
); a community of interest, of understanding, of
religion; mutual good will (
); a tender solicitude (
)
for the cradle (
) and glory of our forefathers (
); in
short, everything that inspired our hopes, came to us from Spain. As a result there was born a
principle of loyalty that seemed eternal (
)….
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The position of the inhabitants (
been for centuries purely passive (
) of the Latin American hemisphere has
). Politically they were nonexistent
(
). We are still in a position lower than slavery, and therefore it is more
difficult for us to rise to the enjoyment of freedom…
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We have been molested (
) by a system which has not only deprived
(
) us of our rights but has kept us in a state of permanent childhood with regard to
public affairs. If we could at least have managed our domestic (
) affairs and our
internal (
) administration, we could have acquainted (
)
ourselves with the process and machinery of government.
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Latin Americans under the existing Spanish system, occupy a position in society no better than
that of serfs (
) suitable (
) for labor, or at best that of mere
(
) consumers (
) of Spanish made goods.
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In short, do you wish to know what our future was? –simply the cultivation (
) of
the fields of indigo (
), grain, coffee, sugar cane, and cotton; raising cattle on the
empty plains; hunting wild game in the wilderness; digging in the earth to mine gold for the
insatiable (
) greed of Spain.
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We were never viceroys (
circumstances; seldom (
only subordinates (
) or governors, save in exceptional (
)
) archbishops and bishops; diplomats never; in the army,
); as nobles, without royal privileges.
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From what I have said it is easy to deduce (
) that Latin America was not prepared
for secession (
) from the mother country…The Latin Americans have risen
rapidly without previous knowledge and, what is worse, without previous experience of the
conduct of public affairs , to enact (
) upon the world stage the important roles of
legislatures, financial administrator, diplomats, generals, and every position of authority,
supreme (
) or subordinate (
), that comprises
(
) the hierarchy (
) of fully establishing state…
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QUESTIONS
What, according to Bolivar, were the effects of
being kept in “permanent childhood” by the
colonial government?
Economically, what kind of future did the
colonies have?
In what areas were official position specifically
denied to the people of the Spanish colonies?
Global History 10 R – Ms. Alvarez
NAME ______________________Period _______
Explain, giving specific details, what Simon Bolivar meant when he referred to Spanish rule as
keeping the Latin Americans in a state of “permanent childhood.”
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Global History 10 R – Ms. Alvarez
Explain, giving specific details, how the conditions in Western Europe in the late 19 th inspire
Bolivar’s Letter from Jamaica.
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